


If it's a vacation you want

by orphan_account



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, SnowWells, Snowells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 06:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3925744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team StarLabs spends a week in Coast City trying to work a case. Caitlin wants to leave as soon as the job is done. Harrison tries to give her a reason to stay. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If it's a vacation you want

**Author's Note:**

> This is a response to a prompt given by flashzoom on tumblr, which was 'first kiss'. I occasionally take requests so if you're interested send them over to longlivekingthrandy.tumblr.com/ask :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy this! (It took me ages to come up with a title. I eventually gave up, as you can see.)

It’s not often that Team StarLabs ventures out of Central City for a mission, but when they do, it’s the taste of freedom that sometimes makes it a bit hard to go back. They’ve been in Coast City for over a week now, and now that the mission is wrapping up, no one seems to be eager to check out of their hotels anytime soon.

“We could go to the beach tomorrow!” Cisco says, gazing outside the room window at the sunset slowly sinking.

Harrison raises an eyebrow and gives him a questioning look. “But we just went to the beach yesterday.”

“We could go again?” Cisco shrugs, and the sighs as everyone seems to be unresponsive. “Come on, it’ll be fun. Think about it, when was the last time we had a vacation?”

“We had nine months off while Barry was in a coma, I think we’ve had plenty of vacations,” Caitlin says, and Harrison’s lips twitch into a small smile.

“She’s right. We’ve had enough time off, and if Central City needs our help then we need to be there for them.” Harrison tries to talk some sense into Cisco, who’s turning back towards everyone with disbelief.

“Have we forgotten that we are working with someone who can run at 700 miles per hour?” He points at Barry, who appears to be caught flustered at the sudden wave of attention. “If anything happens, Joe will call, and Barry will get there in less than a minute.”

Caitlin leans on Harrison’s wheelchair and gives him a certain look. He knows that it’s practically impossible to talk Cisco out of anything, and even if he does, who knows how long he’d end up sulking for once they get back to StarLabs.

“Fine. I’ll move the flight to tomorrow night. You can spend time at the beach tomorrow morning, just be ready to go back later on.”

Cisco breaks into a grin and thanks Harrison before rushing out the door.

“Where is he going?” Caitlin asks.

“To watch the sunset with some girl he met at breakfast this morning. It’s a date,” Barry mouths the last word and smiles at them, before heading out the door by himself. Harrison then looks at Caitlin, who doesn’t seem to be nearly as excited about any of this compared to the other two guys.

“You’re not heading out to watch the sunset?” Harrison asks, trying to approach her with calmness.

She shakes her head. “No, not my kind of thing. I’ll just…” she trails off, walking over to the table and gathering her files. “I’ll read up on some work we need to catch up on. Maybe I’ll start planning for the immunization schedule of the metas. We don’t want to be cultivating diseases in the pipeline.”

She lets out a small laugh and walks over to the bed, dropping the files and going through them without batting an eyelash. Harrison moves closer to her and tries to think of the least evasive thing to say.

“Caitlin, if you’re not… feeling well, we could always go downstairs for dinner? I heard they’re serving a seafood buffet tonight,” Harrison says, and tries not to look worried in case she suddenly looks at him.

“Thank you, Dr. Wells, but I think I’ll just stay here tonight. Someone has to do some work around here every now and then.” She’s still looking at her files, and Harrison takes a breath before reaching out to touch her hand.

“Caitlin, you’re not working tonight. If something’s bothering you I’d be happy to sit down and talk,” he says, hoping that she doesn’t feel his pulse jumping out of his skin. He then gently thumbs her wrist and says, “We could go out for ice-cream.”

She finally turns towards him, and he can tell she’s trying her best not to smile.

-

Caitlin ends up buying a scoop of vanilla ice cream, rum-raisin, mixed with another two scoops of mint-chocolate chip. She likes caramel sauce as a topping, and doesn’t mind sharing a waffle with Harrison either. There is an emphasis on the sharing part, because she thinks she’d be eating too much if she ate the whole thing. So clearly, there was no other option.

“If I knew that this is what you ate for dinner every day I don’t think I should have assigned you to feed the meta-humans,” Harrison says as Caitlin scoops up the last chunks of her ice-cream with her spoon.

“If I didn't know that you ordered Big Belly Burger on takeout on a daily basis I would be more inclined to follow your dietary advice, Dr. Wells.” She smiles at him as she sucks on her spoon.

“Touché,” he replies, and they both laugh for a minute before settling back into conversation.

“Caitlin, I’m sorry you had to stay. Had I known that this place brought back memories of Ronnie I wouldn’t have brought you here.”

Caitlin shrugs, sliding the spoon out of her mouth and scraping off the waffle bits on her plate. “Had to get the job done. Who else would have saved Barry from internal bleeding, or from potentially facing permanent muscle disintegration? Besides, it’s been ages since Ronnie took me here on a first date. He brought me all the way here, just for pizza. Can you believe it?”

Harrison nods and smiles, leaning forward to try to catch her gaze. “You’re brave, Caitlin. Words cannot describe just how valued you are, and how fortunate we are to have you with us.”

“I know,” Caitlin says, looking up and staring out the window. “It’s just that sometimes, I feel like everyone’s busy with their own lives, and I’m just… here, working for you.” She then looks back at him, hands gripping the table. “Not that that’s a bad thing, Dr. Wells. You know I love working for you, and helping people and–”

“It’s all right, Caitlin.” Harrison brushes it off, watching her cheeks slowly turn red and trying not to stare out of endearment. “I love working with you, too.”

-

They end up going back to Caitlin’s hotel room, as she insisted that they get to work on formulating the antibiotics for the meta-humans. He complies and willingly helps her, which, gets the job done quicker than they both expected. They’ve always worked well together, and the fact that they’re putting their files back in their suitcases before midnight is a testament to that.

It’s quiet as Caitlin finishes stacking up the last of the files, squeezing it underneath the pile of clothes and laundry. A part of Harrison wishes that she’d take longer to pack, so when she starts zipping up her suitcase a sense of dismay washes over him.

“All done for today,” Caitlin says, looking quite pleased with herself. “I swear, if Barry and Cisco forget to pack tomorrow, I am not spending another day here.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to give them a couple of timely reminders,” Harrison replies, folding his arms in his lap and smiling back at her.

She presses her lips together, takes a breath and walks past him and back towards the bed. “So, what about you? Do you need some help with packing, Dr. Wells?”

He shakes his head and waves her off. “No, Caitlin, I’m fine. Thank you, though, for the generous offer.”

She nods and sits on the edge of her bed, brushing her fingers through her hair as he wheels in closer.

“If that’s all for tonight, Dr. Snow–”

“No,” she cuts in. He notices the slightly petrified look on her face, as if she had just said something terrible. “I mean, I– I know I’m not… You’re welcome to stay, if you’d like.” She finally gets the words out of her mouth, but not without a visible struggle, one that he fully appreciates and is more than happy to consider.

“That’s not for me to decide, Dr. Snow,” Harrison replies, trying to remain as level-headed as possible.

“Stop calling me that,” she snaps, growing more frustrated by the second, much to Harrison’s amusement.

“Caitlin?”

“Yes,” she exhales, closing her eyes and bringing a hand to her temple.

“I’d be happy to stay tonight,” Harrison says, bringing a hand to her face and gently pushing back the hair on her face.

She opens her eyes and the creases on her forehead slowly disappears. They sit in silence for a while before Caitlin suggest that they watch a movie before going to bed. Of course, her definition of the movie is a two-hour long documentary about honey bees, and it’s one that Harrison seems to be equally invested in as well.

She manages to help him climb into the bed, pulling the sheets over his legs as she tries not to make any comments about the paralysis. He can tell that she’s doing her best to make him comfortable, which has him utterly smitten for the night. Their documentary-watching skills aren't so great, they discover, as they end up fact-checking on their tablets every five minutes and having their own discussions on the deadliest poisons in the animal kingdom.

Somewhere along the night, in between the intense discussions and the long-winded conversations, the gap between the two of them slowly diminishes in the bed. Maybe it’s in the way Harrison keeps leaning over when showing her something on his tablet, or the way Caitlin tends to laugh so hard that she ends up having to hold his shoulder for support. It doesn’t matter really, the fact is by around two in the morning, the two of them end up so close that their legs are touching, and Caitlin’s head is rested on his shoulder.

“When will this documentary end,” she mutters, before letting out a yawn.

“It should be over soon,” Harrison says as he strokes her head gently. “Who knows, maybe one day all of this bee-knowledge will come in handy for us.”

Caitlin lets out a small ‘pfft’ in response, as Harrison chuckles to himself.

“Dr. Wells?” she says, suddenly looking up at him. He turns towards her, then sits up a little bit trying to regain some of the professionalism he had lost somewhere in the night.

“Yes, Caitlin?”

“Thanks for staying over tonight. Coast City isn’t so bad with you,” she says.

They both smile at each other, warm and sincere. Harrison can feel the warmth of her body next to his, radiating from his chest all the way down to his legs. He then brings his hand to her face again, slowly tracing it to the back of her head, gently resting his palm on the small curve of it. Her doe eyes are staring right back at him, and slowly, he sees her moving closer to his face.

He closes his eyes as soon as their lips touch, and when it does, he feels as if he’s been captured in a state of bliss. Her lips are soft, gently locked on his as she brings a hand to his cheek. She sucks gently, and he tries not to exert any force onto her as they continue to kiss, again and again.

Soon, he feels both her hands on his face, and she’s slinging a leg over his lap until she’s in a position to straddle him. They finally stop kissing, and Caitlin pulls back and takes a deep breath.

“I know you can’t, but I just… I need to be here, with you,” she says, with the utmost amount of conviction.

Harrison’s hands are gripping onto her waist, but then he brings them back up to gently cup her face. “You know I’ll always be here for you, Caitlin.”

She nods, and they both lean in for another kiss. This time, she pulls away and wraps her arms around his neck. He holds her in a tight embrace for a few seconds, and she eventually lets go and rolls off him, holding onto his shoulder for support. Once she’s fully off him, he takes her hand and uses his other hand to push himself closer to her.

“Also, I never said that we can’t do it,” Harrison says, lips curving upwards into a slow smile. “The timing is unfortunate, yes, considering that we’ve just spent what’s left of our energy for tonight watching a documentary on bees, but I think we can go over the mechanisms of it during our flight back tomorrow, Dr. Snow.”

“Oh, so now you’re saying that we’ll be going over the mechanisms of it _on_ the plane?” Caitlin says, moving backwards as she tries to bring a pillow up to Harrison’s face.

“I never said that,” Harrison says, meeting her lips for just a fraction of a second before Caitlin manages to stuff the pillow into his face. He takes off his glasses and grabs hold of the pillow. “Although, I’d be open for several clinical trials if you are, Dr. Snow.”

“I’ll check my schedule,” she says, as she buries her fingers in his hair and pulls him back down with her. Maybe they should spend more time outside Central City, after all.


End file.
